Why Does Death Always Surprise Us
Saturday, August 9th, 2008[1] Colored pencil, graphite and sumi ink on paper. The text reads, "why does death always surprise us?" [1] http://jaysennett.com/wp-content/uploads/hpim0376.jpg
Archive for the ‘Religion’ Category
[1] Colored pencil, graphite and sumi ink on paper. The text reads, "why does death always surprise us?" [1] http://jaysennett.com/wp-content/uploads/hpim0376.jpg
Christianity Meets….
Thursday, November 3rd, 2005[1] Christianity meets Whiteness. Or, Christianity Meets Transsexuality. Or, Christianity Meets White Transsexuality. You decide. What I know is this: At Mrs. Rosa Parks funeral yesterday, Rev. Al Sharpton mentioned the countless numbers of black folks who sacrificed themselves in the fifties and sixties to make a better life for us today. People like: Medger Evers, shot to death in the driveway of his home for attempting to organize black folks. The four black girls who died in a church bombing (which prompted Martin Luther King Jr.'s statement, "all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.") Still, black folks, and some white folks (many of them Jewish) forged onward and continued to love and fight for themselves and their children, born and unborn. So when certain white people, like sex columnist Dan Savage, tell me that it is, oh so tough right now during George Shrub, Jr.'s presidency, I think, how convenient. How easy for middle-class white folks like Dan to pick up and leave when things don't seem to go their way for awhile. How easy for evil to triumph. I wonder how different our world would be if Myrlie Evers Williams and Coretta Scott King and Julian Bond and Charlene Teeters and Cesar Chavez and Rosa Parks and Ed Roberts (the father of the disability rights movement) had said, "fuck it! We're moving to Paris." So lets all move to Paris, then. And let the James Crow, Jr, Esq. (the son of Jim Crow - hat tip to Rev. Sharpton again) grind up our poor queer kids and poor old folks and the all the permanently disabled coming back from Iraq who are white and black and brown and red and yellow. Let us let evil triumph. Yeah, fuck it! Let's leave 'cause we never really cared about these folks anyway. That's why we loved Bill Clinton so much. He made us feel comfortable in our numbness and disorientation. Me. Me. Me. Me.....and evil triumphs, again. So I take my cue from Henry Rollins, who, unlike Dan Savage, never once during his live show, spoke of leaving the U.S. Instead, he spoke about his belief in the American people and his love of all the great many things our country has produced like the Ramones, and Louis Armstrong. He shared about his numerous U.S.O. visits, including two to Walter Reed Hospital. With every fiber in his body he spoke of the power of staying and fighting and loving and laughing. It is also no surprise to me that he, among many things, really gets white privilege. He understands that he is part of a larger community. A community of people who have stayed on and fought for more goodness in the world long after it is fashionable, who aren't whiners, or worriers or do-gooders. Thank the goddess they have stayed. If we had left the civil rights movement up to folks like Dan Savage, we'd all be fucked. And since I'm not willing to let evil triumph, I'm staying put. Right here. Right now. [1] http://jaysennett.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/christianity.JPG
Straight Acting
Tuesday, October 11th, 2005[1] Peterson Toscano [2], fabulous theatrical performance activist, shared with me his thoughts about emboding a conservative ex-gay ministry kind of masculinity or how to not act like a fag, and how acting British gets you better customer service. His words remind me of how much I had to retrain my body to look and act (naturally) more masculine and straight. Especially during my early years on hormones, when I got read not as woman or lesbian but as fucking faggot. During the beginning portion of my 17 years enduring "ex-gay" therapy, I received specific training on my voice inflection. Throughout high school my voice, although baritone, I inflected up the ends of my sentences. I was told that this was too feminine sounding and needed to sound more sure of myself, more masculine. [1] http://jaysennett.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/i-lost-buddha.JPG [2] http://www.petersontoscano.com/
Why Stay In The Church? Carter Heyward’s reasons…
Thursday, June 16th, 2005Why would a Queer person stay in a Christian church? Particularly one like mine, which bans my ordination? That question always elicits a deep sigh from me before an answer. It's not an easy decision when the Church (Capital C) as a whole does so much spiritual violence to LGBT persons. And yet I stay for, what I believe, are good reasons. Before I tell you mine, I want to quote reasons from one of my favorite authors, Carter Heyward. She is a leading feminist and radical theologian who also happens to be a lesbian and Episcopalian priest. She was a professor at Episcopal Divinity School in Boston until her retirement. I want to quote to you a bit of her introduction to her book Touching Our Strength: The Erotic as Power and the Love of God. (1989) I highly recommend this book to everyone, Queer Christians especially, although I know the name alone will give some readers palpitations....wait till you read the entire book!
A Passing
Thursday, June 9th, 2005Ona's dear friend, Ann-Marie, passed away yesterday morning. A fear-less, god-full woman, all will miss her. In a post [1] earlier this week, Ona wrote about her dear, dear friend: [S]he was asking me if I knew that Jerry Falwell makes all his students at Liberty University sign an anti-homosexual pledge. Then she said, "I would scold him if I could and tell him God doesn't make trash." She doesn't have a gay son or daughter. She doesn't have a personal investment in the Queer rights movement except for the friends she has sought out in it. What she does have is a deep commitment to the belief that all people, just as they are, are created in the image of God, queer or not. At 82, her theology is a great deal more "cutting edge" than the majority of Christians in this country. She is a powerful ally because of the influence she has had in the senior residence where she lived. Every day, she lived an example of radical inclusivity in a population that didn't have any "out" people living in it. This is the kind of ally we desperately need. I celebrate her existence and witness in my life and the lives of so many others.Amen. [1] http://jaysennett.typepad.com/jay_sennetts_blog/2005/06/celebrating_our.html#more
Abolish The Verb To Be (or Not Identity But Perception and Behavior)
Monday, June 6th, 2005What happens when we abolish the verb "to be" from the English language? Great things. Consider E-PRIME [1] (E stands for English). E-PRIME, abolishing all forms of the verb "to be," has its roots in the field of general semantics, as presented by Alfred Korzybski in his 1933 book, Science and Sanity. Korzybski pointed out the pitfalls associated with, and produced by, two usages of "to be": identity and predication.To understand E-PRIME, consider the human brain as a computer where Garbage In equals Garbage Out. The wrong software guarantees the wrong answer. The right software provides an answer miraculously.... [1] http://www.nobeliefs.com/eprime.htm
Workplace Transitions: Effective Advocacy for Transgender-Inclusive Employee Benefit Plans
Friday, May 27th, 2005The ever wonderful people of American Friends Service Committee's [1] lgbt Rights and Recognition have written an exemplary document (Download AFSC_document.pdf [2]) on how to obtain workplace insurance coverage for transgender people. They have also included AFSC's Employee Benefit Plan that includes transgender coverage (Download afsc_employee_benefit_plan.pdf [3] ). To AFSC I say thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Please download and distribute far and wide. [1] http://www.afsc.org/lgbt/default.htm [2] http://jaysennett.typepad.com/jay_sennetts_blog/files/AFSC_document.pdf [3] http://jaysennett.typepad.com/jay_sennetts_blog/files/afsc_employee_benefit_plan.pdf
The Debate is Over.
Friday, May 27th, 2005Yesterday, I got a very polite response from an evangelical Christian posting that the "Bible is reasonably clear that homosexuality is wrong." After four years as a religion major and over three years in seminary, I can assure you that the 20th century English translations are also fairly clear that wearing poly-cotton blends are punishable by death, and slavery and extramarital sex are fine. (Adultery, taking another man's wife, is not; but taking an unmarried concubine is just fine. Actually, taking hundreds of them is fine.) I would be glad to point you towards Biblical scholarship that would argue a different point of view, but I will not debate this topic myself. For me the debate is over. We are beloved children created in the very image of God, not just good, but in the IMAGE of God, God's self!!!! There is not more debate about our rightness, our wrongness, our intrinsic moral value, our purity or holiness. We are God's children! End of debate. If you want to come to my church, I will sit down with you for communion, I will work side by side with you in our three night a week hot meal program for the homeless, I will share a shovel on landscaping the senior residences, I will do Bible Study with you. But I will not debate my existence nor my right to exist. Thanks for reading and responding. (BY the way, have you heard of Evangelicals Reconciled? It's a group of evangelical Christians who have done their homework and are not anti-homosexual. There are plenary inspirationalists (conservative scholars who believe that each Greek or Hebrew word of the bible was inspired directly by God) who do not hold the beliefs you do. It is worth you doing some research.)
The Hardest Thing
Thursday, May 26th, 2005Or at least one of the hardest things..... My regional minister, a person for whom I have immense respect, has a mantra he preaches all the time. He says, there is room for everyone at God's table. (we have a great deal of glbt vs. anti glbt sentiment in the region) It is hard for me to live this out. How can i sit at the same table where "they" sit...where "they" don't believe I have the right to be ordained, to serve, even to have simple private rights like marriage? "Their" language causes suffering and death. "Their" language causes massive spiritual violence towards the people I Love. It would be easier to sit at the table with a mass murderer... But what am I saying? When I moved to Denver, the first funeral I performed was for a young lesbian who committed suicide. Her Pentecostal pastor father told her it would be better if she had been a murderer because at least she could be saved from that. Suddenly my words aren't too far away from his... Be the change I want to see in the world. Love my enemies and pray for those who persecute me. Sit at a table that is big enough for all people, even those who would deny me my seat. Deep breath. Hard Spiritual Practice. The right choice. Ona
Dear Dr. Dobson — May 1st in Colorado Springs
Wednesday, May 25th, 2005on May 1st, I stood with over 700 other people of faith, queer and allies, in front of Focus on the Family headquarters in Colorado Springs, CO. This was a rally/protest/celebration/action put on by SoulForce, Inc. Soulforce is a national, interfaith group dedicated to freedom from political and spiritual oppression for GLBT people. It follows the teachings of Gandi and MLK Jr., in using "relentless, nonviolent resistance" to "take the truth in love" to those who spread lies and misunderstandings in their campaigns of fear and hatred. Dr. James Dobson, as the founder of Focus on the Family, is one of the largest voices of spiritual violence against queers in this country. He calls us, literally, monsters, out to destroy America and the American family. Hello? Anybody home? The sad but predictable thing was that Dr. Dobson was, imagine this, out of state when Soulforce came to visit. Yes, he had over a year's warning to come up with a very good reason to be gone. This was no minor event.
Guest Author Joins This Blog
Thursday, May 19th, 2005Ona Marae has agreed to join me in blogging heaven. Her initial blogs will focus on the revolutionary nature of Jesus, Christianity and that mythical creature: the queer Christian. I was a religion major in college and wrote my honors thesis on the nature of a just war in Karl Barth's ethics. Ona and I have chatted about religion and spirituality for about nine years now. She is inspired and inspiring and has fought for herself and her religion. She writes:My cat and I live and love in Denver. I am a 40 year old feminist lesbian with a disability. I am white, a farmgirl gone urban, overeducated but living on a disability income. I am a writer and glbt/disability rights activist. I am a Christian also and combine the activism closely with my spirituality. I also have worked part time at a battered women's shelter for 8 years. I was a monthly writer for LIC (Lesbians in Colorado) Magazine and now write for Spinster Wisdom. I have published poetry in glbt magazines and books and am looking for that first breakthrough with a short story!
Freely Choosing a Queer Lifestyle
Tuesday, May 17th, 2005I've been reading Unitarian Universalist blogs of late. Shawn Anthony is a new blogging pal. In a post yesterday [1], he delighted me with his "Open Memo to Corporate Moralists." For years I have been unhappy with the lgbt activist tool that argues for our emancipation because we are "born the way we are." When we accept this tool as the only productive avenue for achieving our civil rights, we also accept the notion we are inherently wrong. After all, no one willing chooses to be gay or lesbian or bisexual or trans. Why can't our loving and gendering be a personal choice? We do not know how to address accusations that we are making personal lifestyle choices. And here is where Shawn's post blows my mind. [1] http://www.progressiveink.com/index.php/2005/05/14/open-memo-to-corporate-moralists/
Awesome Quote…a Real Christian
Monday, May 9th, 2005"In writing, the burden of avoiding offense shifts in large part to the reader, as the burden of honesty shifts more to me. We live on a continuum between honesty and hospitality. You just have to find your place."from Real Live Preacher [1], found in the comments section to this post [2]. This guy is the real deal Christian, humble, funny and very honest. Reading his blog I am again reminded that Jerry Falwell does not own Christianity. I am also reminded that a few dear friends are queer/lbtg and Christian. They have shared with me they have a more difficult time being out as Christian, than they do as queer. RLP is also an excellent writer. [1] http://blogs.salon.com/0001772/ [2] http://blogs.salon.com/0001772/2005/05/09.html
